


Cats, Kittens & a Freaked Out Alec Lightwood

by Echele78



Series: Flufftober/Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Cats, Established Relationship, Flufftober, Kittens being born, M/M, Malec, Panic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 21:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21042887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echele78/pseuds/Echele78
Summary: Alec doesn't know what to do when a cat goes into labor.





	Cats, Kittens & a Freaked Out Alec Lightwood

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober Day 15 - Kittens

“Darling?” Magnus yells to Alec from his home office.

“Yeah, babe.” Alec replies as he comes down the hall to the office then leans against the door frame.

“Would you mind going up and feeding the cats? I’m right in the middle of this and I don’t want to forget to do it.”

“Sure, babe. I’ll take care of it. No problem.” Alec pushes himself off the door jam and turns to go.

“Thank you, sweetie. I love you.” Magnus calls after him.

“Love you too.” comes Alec’s answer, his voice fading out as he gets farther down the hall.

Up on the terrace, Alec sees some of the stray cats that Magnus feeds. Alec himself is not a cat person. He never had a cat growing up and isn’t familiar with their behaviors. He mostly thinks they’re sneaky and aloof. The only cat he tolerates is Chairman Meow and that is mostly because Magnus loves that cat so much. Alec fills all the food and water bowls and watches as all the cats come “home” to eat.

He sees all the usual suspects but notices that the black and white female is missing. He thinks that’s odd. None of Magnus’ cats ever miss a meal. Even though cats aren’t his favorite, he doesn’t want anything bad to have happened to her. He looks around the terrace and finds her over in a covered corner along the back wall. She’s dragged in a couple of shirts from who-knows-where and has made herself a bed. As Alec gets closer to her, he sees that she has made the bed so she’ll have somewhere to have her kittens. She already has two and it doesn’t look like she’s finished.

Alec is disconcerted. He’s never seen anything give birth. He runs downstairs to Magnus’ office. “Magnus! You’ve got to come upstairs.” he yells when he’s halfway down the hall. He bursts through the door, almost hitting Magnus with it as he meets him in the doorway. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Magnus asks, concern clear in his voice and on his face.

Out of breath Alec stammers “You know…the black…and white…cat?”

“Oreo? Has something happened to her?”

“You named her Oreo?” Alec asks disbelievingly.

“Yes. What of it? Has something happened to her?” Magnus is extremely concerned at this point. “She’s not dead is she? She was so sweet, hence her name.”

“No, no no. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just a bit freaked out.” says Alec. “She’s not dead. She’s in labor. What do we do?”

“Is that all?” Magnus laughs. “There’s nothing for us_ to_ do. Cats are extremely self-sufficient when it comes to having kittens. We just stay out of her way and let her take care of things.”

“That doesn’t seem right. Don’t we need to take her to a vet?” says Alec. Now he’s the one that’s concerned. “I mean, shouldn’t we at least watch her to make sure everything goes well?”

“If you want to sit with Oreo as she has her kittens I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. It will put your mind at ease, too.”

“Don’t you want to sit with us?”

“I’ve got to finish this project I’m working on. I’ll check in every now and again.”

“That sounds good. I’m going back up to check on her.”

“Alright. I’ll be up in a little while.”

♦♦♦♦

Alec makes his way over to the corner where Oreo has made her bed. He grabs a cushion off one of the patio chairs and places it down on the floor next to her, but not too close. He doesn’t want to make her nervous, just be close enough to monitor her. He sits on the cushion and leans back against the wall.

“Hi, Oreo. How ya doin’? I’m not gonna bother you. I’m just gonna sit right here and be quiet.” Alec feels silly talking to a cat but he doesn’t really know what else to do.

Over the next hour and a half, Oreo has kittens number three and four. Everything goes well. Magnus came up in between them and reassured Alec that everything was fine. So far they’re all black and white like Oreo.

As the next hour goes by, it seems that Oreo is getting tired. Alec doesn’t know how long she’s been in labor. He knows it only took 30 to 40 minutes between three and four so he’s starting to get worried. He’s pretty sure there’s at least one more kitten to go. He reaches over to scratch Oreo on the head. She leans into his hand and looks in his eyes. The look she gives him confirms his suspicions; she’s very tired and not done yet. He rubs her belly gently and can feel one more kitten.

“Okay girl. I’m going to go talk to Magnus and I’ll be right back.” He scratches her head again then heads downstairs.

Alec finds Magnus in the kitchen. “Hi there. I was just getting ready to come up and check on both of you. How’s it going?”

“I think something wrong. She’s getting really tired and there’s another one left to go. It’s been awhile since the last kitten was born. Longer than the time between the others.” Alec tells him.

“Sometimes the last one just likes to take their time. No need to get overly concerned yet but let’s go see how she’s doing to be sure.”

They go back up and Magnus checks on Oreo. “I think everything’s okay right now. The last one just isn’t ready yet. If she goes for a couple more hours and nothing has happened, we’ll call the emergency vet. Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I’m gonna keep sitting up here with her. I’m invested in this now and need to make sure Oreo is fine.”

“Alright. I’ll stay up here with you for a while.” Magnus brings over another cushion and sits beside Alec, hand in hand as they watch over Oreo and wait.

♦♦♦♦

Another hour passes and finally there’s some activity. Oreo gets awfully restless and in turn so do Alec and Magnus. After all this time, the last kitten in finally born. It’s all black and a male. He’s smaller than the others, too. Oreo cleans him up and he starts nursing. “Look at that. I knew everything was going to be fine.” says Magnus as he gently strokes Oreo’s head. He looks at Alec who looks so relieved. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. I guess is just didn’t know I could be that concerned about a silly cat. Well, I guess she’s not silly anymore. Would you care if we kept her…inside with us and Chairman?”

“I’m fine with it but we’ll have to make sure Chairman doesn’t have a problem. Not all cats get along with each other. Let’s get her and the kittens set up in the extra room and we’ll keep Chairman out of there for a few weeks. Then we’ll introduce Oreo to him. If that goes well, we’ll introduce the kittens.”

“That’s a great plan.” says Alec as he smiles from ear to ear.

♦♦♦♦

After four weeks, Oreo and Chairman are introduced. They get along effortlessly. The kittens, well…Chairman tolerates them. Magnus can tell by the look in Chairman’s eyes when the kittens crawl all over him that they drive him crazy but he doesn’t hurt them.

At six week Magnus brings up the topic of re-homing the kittens. “Alec, the kittens are six weeks old and we’re going to need to find homes for them soon.”

“I know. We can’t keep them all. We’ve got too many cats already.” Alec responds.

“Oh. I was afraid you had your heart set on keeping them.”

“No, just one. I want to keep Shadow, the black male. He was the last to be born and the runt of the litter. I’ve grown attached to him and I think he’s grown attached to me. I can’t let him go.”

“That’s fine with me. And I’m sure we’ll be able to find wonderful homes for the others.” Magnus smiles. “Shadow, huh?” he questions. “I didn’t realize you had named them.”

“I didn’t. Only Shadow. He’s special.” Alec says with a small smile and a shrug.

“We’ll start looking for homes for the other kittens tomorrow.”

♦♦♦♦

At eight weeks the kittens are weaned and ready to go to their new forever homes. Magnus and Alec have found wonderful families to take each one. They’ve also made an appointment to get Oreo spayed so this doesn’t happen again. The families come to get the kittens and the loft feels a little empty without them there.

“I’m sad to see them go but I know they’re all going to have wonderful lives in their new homes.” Alec sighs as he closes the door as the last one leaves.

“I know. Me too.” says Magnus.

Next thing they know, Shadow is weaving his way through Alec’s legs, rubbing all over him. Alec picks him up and Shadow purrs loudly. “You’re gonna have a great life here with Magnus and me.” says Alec to Shadow as he nuzzles his cheek.

If Shadow could agree, Magnus thinks that is exactly what he’s doing. Shadow is Alec’s cat and Alec is definitely Shadow’s person.

Chairman and Oreo make an appearance and rub up against Magnus. “You two don’t want to be left out, huh?” Magnus says as he reaches down to scoop them both up. “Don’t you worry. We’re all gonna be one big happy family.” He and Alec smile at each other than head into the living room to snuggle with each other on the couch. Chairman, Oreo and Shadow don’t let that go on very long without getting right in the middle of them. Alec and Magnus don’t really mind…this time.


End file.
